Marketing Innovation: Amazon’s Sample Boxes

Amazon’s Sample Box is a special offer by Amazon, for a “subscription box” style package, which contains samples of products in various categories, priced between $7 and $ 20, where the entire cost then goes towards a purchase made in that category on Amazon (not limited to the same products as those sampled). This platform is currently available in categories such as beauty and cosmetics (“basic” as well as “premium”, “men” as well as “women”); household products; food and beverage (inc. coffee and snacks, sports nutrition and health and wellness); and pet food. And the products can be either category-specific or brand-specific (such as Aveeno, Purina or Keurig boxes).

We chose this as the next big thing in marketing, for the following reasons:

1. The platform provides a new sampling platform, relevant to tens of millions of Prime subscribers. Sampling is one of the most effective marketing tactics, and the data that goes with it (who bought, when, what they thought) is even a bigger perk.

2. The platform expands the “box” concept to virtually any possible product category – perhaps even service – and creates a new solution in the industry for both consumers and marketers.

3. From Amazon point of view, the company can benefit greatly: first – as a marketing platform; second – it guarantees that when the shopper shops for full-sized products, they will do so on Amazon, where they already have a credit towards the purchase; third – this provides an additional incentive to subscribe – free samples.

This extraordinary thinking is, once again, a possible game changer: for the marketing industry, for the subscription / surprise boxes industry, and of course for retailers.

Amazon still hasn’t made a marketing blitz on these, but we expect these boxes to be everyone’s favorite in 2018. Perhaps a related Alexa skill is making its way to us as we speak.